Christmas Presents

• Sweater
• Jeans
• Lounge pants
• Super Mario World PJs (not pictured)
• Snow overalls
• Gloves
• Slippers
• Electric razor
• Digital watch
• Nerf gun (everybody else got one, too)
• Extra ammunition
• 8 Planet Earth puzzles (Mom got the Blu-Ray collection)
• A "smart globe" (family present)
• Lord of the Rings boardgame
• Japanese missionary phrasebook
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard
• A Blu-Ray player (family present)
• Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Blu-Ray)
• de Blob (Wii)
• A tin of popcorn (3 flavors)
• 13.5 inches of snow (not pictured)

Economic re-what-on?

So Yeah...

I guess I should post something here pertaining to my life.

With Mom's help I made "zuppa toscana" today. It's basically just a bunch of chopped sausage, bacon, onion, kale, and potatoes cooked in a pot in a certain order. It's my favorite soup.

Running Start has been going pretty well. If I get anything other than an A+ in Western Civ, I'll be surprised. I got an A+ on my research paper about the Anabaptist movement (25% of my grade) and aced all three of the tests so far, and only two tests remain (the other 75% of my grade). College Algebra has been almost exactly the same, although I'm not sure about how well I'll do in Trigonometry. English 101 has been harder than the other two classes, so I expect a solid B.

As far as scouting is concerned, I haven't put much work into it lately. I'm on track for finishing the Physical Fitness merit badge by my birthday, and the rest just require paperwork. The hardest thing is going to be the Eagle Project. I can still theoretically obtain my Eagle, but I only have 41 days left to work on it, so I better get working quick.

I also haven't signed up for classes next quarter. That might end up being problematic...

Election '08

All elections should be like this:

Finding My Way

As you probably have already heard, I went on a 50-mile bike ride yesterday. We started biking at around 9:30 or so up in Mt. Vernon. We started off pretty good, but I was lagging behind the group for some reason (I was using Danny's bike). We stopped every so often so the stragglers such as myself could catch up. At one point we took the wrong road for a mile or so, but we all managed to get back on track. In fact, that unintentional detour added the extra two miles to the otherwise 48-mile route we had planned. It took us about nearly four hours to get halfway, where we stopped at a park for a while. Some of us felt much more tired than others, which led to us being spread out quite a bit. We had a buddy system in place, but since it was based on a criterion other than speed, it fell apart quickly and often.

Around 35 miles into the trip I took a right turn when I should have taken a left, because I wasn't able to really see anybody else from our group, and I thought I saw some people go that way. Anyways, I rode all the way down the road, over the hill, and then to a highway. I knew that I had to cross the highway to get back to where I started, but it didn't look crossable at that intersection. Fortunately, some nice driver who took notice of my plight gave me directions to an intersection that I could cross. I followed his directions, crossed the freeway, then went down the road I was on until I reached a T-intersection. Later (after all of this), I compared my route to the route given on the map and realized that I had miraculously got back on the intended route unintentionally. However, I was without any sort of map at the time, so I took the direction that seemed more populated. I literally said "Halelujah!" (or whatever) when I saw the sign saying "Entering Mount Vernon."

After entering the city I asked the first person I saw if he knew the way to the fairgrounds (ie the place where we started). He said he wasn't from there, but he then changed his mind and said he would tell me where to go if I gave him my money. Being in desperation mode, I gladly forked over my four bucks, and he gave me directions to the playground. There's a big difference between the playground and fairgrounds.

After realizing that the fairgrounds were on the other side of the river, I crossed the bridge. Righ in front of me were two girls out walking who gladly provided me with accurate directions. However, when I got to the place I found that nobody was there, and that the truck that held the bikes was gone. Seeing this evidence of absence, I came to the conclusion that nobody realized that I got lost, and then left without me. I started fretting about where I was going to sleep. I worried about sleeping outside in the cold, or worse, with one of the weird Mexican families in the nearby apartment complex. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded, and I was found half an hour later. Once they got back, I realized that the other vehicle that we had been there the whole time.

What can we learn from this experience. Quite a lot of things, actually:

• Always give everybody a map.
• Sometimes choosing the left is a good option too.
• Stay together even if it means slowing down.
• Priestcraft is bad.
• Always have a good bike seat.
• Pray, pray, pray, pray, and pray.
• Always have a chase vehicle.

Suggestions for more lessons that we can learn are welcome.

Killing Time

I'm at college right now. I usually arrive here at 8 o'clock in the morning, spend an hour with my online class, go to my 9 o'clock class (Western Civ), then spend another hour with the online class (or doing homework) before going to my math class at 11 o'clock.

Unfortunately my Western Civ teacher is sick, meaning I have about 3 hours to do stuff. The real problem is that I've done almost everything I could do by now. I've done the discussion board stuff for English, finished the small amount of math homework I had, and read the online reading for Western Civ. I need to watch Remember the Titans, but both of the copies the library has are missing the discs. In essence, I have nothing to do for the next hour except kill time.

College: Week 1

This being my first week of college ever, I was surprised at how easy the classes seemed. It's possibly because it was just the first week, but then again, it's also possible that they're trying to lull me into a false sense of security. I don't know exactly what to think. Anyways, I have two conventional college classes, and one online class. Here's a summary of them.

Western Civ - The teacher's name is J. T. Ripper, but he's actually a pretty nice guy. He was kind enough to have us buy the cheapest textbook on campus. It was only $30; less than $20 if used. It's just a large collection of large essays on various subjects relating to the course's subject. Most of the homework is just reading an essay from it, and also reading a bunch of stuff online, so we'll be able to go to class the next day ready to discuss it. There's also a big huge paper that's due in November, but it doesn't worry me.

College Algebra - I practically took this course last year in high school, so I bet that 90% of the material will be review for me.

English 101 - This is my online class. It works differently than I expected. For one, there are discussion boards, where we discuss the readings we've read. The posts are graded. Another thing is that we have to set up a blog for the class. I got mine set up here. We also have the usual assortment of essays and stuff.

Sorry if this all seems rather undescriptive, but it's late and I want to go to sleep soon. At least I don't have seminary tomorrow...

...and Back Again

I've been meaning to update this blog for a while, but I've been far to laz- I mean busy - to do so. Fortunately for you, I've decided, out of the goodness of my heart, to blog again (there's also the fact that I wanted to finish the title of the previous post).

Anyhow, summer has basically ended for me, so I've returned to "normal" life. I got back from my vacation at the end of AugustI don't have any more week long vacations planned for the year. I went through the yearly ritual of buying the same pair of shoes again. I've started seminary, which has effectively made it impossible for me to stay up late; doubly so now that my Mom's one of the teachers. The only thing that has yet to happen for me is, quite ironically, the start of school. Doubly ironic is the fact that the reason is because I'm enrolled in "Running Start."

And to answer the question you'll ask in 5 seconds, no, I am not currently reading The Hobbit. I got a couple chapters into it on vacation, but stopped. I blame video games.

There...

I've been caught into a rather unexpected vacation, which I only learned about last week. I heard some rumors that Marcy would be getting married sometime this summer or something, but I always assumed that I wouldn't actually be going to it. Little did I know that it would somehow explode into a full blown week-long family vacation, making this the fifth week I've been away from home this summer. I don't really mind, because I haven't actually been doing anything notable the past couple of weeks.

So far, I've camped out in a nice cabin, gone to Yellowstone, went spelunking, and spent over 24 hours total in a car (yes, really). The wedding will be in almost exactly 12 hours from now. After that, we'll go down to Utah and probably spend a day at an amusement park. I expect to return home on Sunday.

Driving from Utah to home usually takes 16 hours.

My feelings on that subject should be obvious.

Tagged

Joys:

1. Nature
2. Video games
3. Dancing
   

Fears:

1. Needles of any kind
2. Thrown rocks
   
3. Falling down something that I can't get back up (eg cliffs)
   

Current Obsessions:

1. Mega Man
2. They Might Be Giants
3. Bananas
   

Surprising Facts:

1. I stayed up past 11:30 last night watching a thunderstorm.
2. I'm the best air guitar player you'll never hear.
   
3. Contrary to popular opinion, I am not a monkey or an ape, but rather a ninja.
   

Tags:

1. DW
   
2. Dee Dubya
   
3. David
4. David
   
5. David

(These are the rules: list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 surprising facts and then tag 5 other people. Leave a comment for the people you tag so they know they have been tagged.)

Biking

I left last Tuesday for a biking trip on the San Juan Islands. In total, the distance was about 100 miles in four days. I really enjoyed it.

Even though I left on Tuesday, I should note that no actual biking took place on that day. We just went to Deception Pass, which isn't even on the islands, and camped out there. We still had a good time doing things like playing capture the flag and playing on the beach. There was even a lake right next to the ocean that we could swim, canoe, and even paddleboat (if that's a verb) in.

On Wednesday we took the ferry from Anacortes to Lopez Island. The total distance was about 30 miles, and it did not feel like something you'd want to begin a biking trip with. The scenery was nice, but the hills were annoying to an extent. It was nice coasting down them, but there were only a couple of occasions where one could use that speed to go up the next hill. That probably explains the fact that lunch was about an hour long.

The next day we biked 4 miles to the ferry, which took us to Orcas Island. The ride had slightly better hills than the first, but considering the fact that the ride ended with a 3 mile long uphill slope, I consider the ride harder than the first one. Some brave souls biked up Mt. Constitution, which was a 5.5 mile uphill slope, but I was not one of those souls. Most people said that it was basically "2 hours up and 20 minutes down." Fortunately, the adults were kind enough to let the wimps, like me, get driven to the top. If it wasn't for the haze, we would have been able to see all the way from Canada to Marysville (possibly).

Friday was the longest day distance-wise, but ironically the easiest. We started out by doing the previous day's hike in reverse in about half the time. The ferry took us to San Juan Island itself. Other than the intial uphill, the ride was very easy. The hills allowed us to coast down them and go over the next one for most of the ride, and we managed to do the first 10 miles in 40 minutes before stopping for lunch. That's what I call easy. Unfortunately for me, during the second half of the ride my hands were much more slippy, so I couldn't shift gears very easily. Then again, that doesn't change the fact that we arrived at camp over three hours earlier than projected. The only bad thing about the day was that scenery just struck me as dull.

Saturday was the best day for a variety of reasons. The hills were like the previous day's, but it did seem a bit harder; however, the scenery was much better and had much more variety. We even ran across a large group of runners doing something for some charity. The best thing about the day was discovering that we arrived on time for the 10:25 ferry, which meant that we arrived over three hours earlier than anticipated. The worst part about the day was discovering that it was stifling hot back at home. Oh well.

Hiking

I was on vacation this past week, and did a lot of hiking. I also managed to read the entire Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Having done both, I decided to make top 5 lists for both, despite the fact that there are only five real options for both. Please note that the top two items for each list are practically interchangeable.

Top 5 Hikes:
1. Lower Ape Cave
2. Lewis River Trail
3. Eagle Creek Trail to Tunnel Falls
4. Historic Columbia River Highway
5. Multnomah Falls to Triple Falls

Top 5 Hitchhiker Books:
1. Restaurant at the End of the Universe
2. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
3. Life, the Universe, and Everything
4. Mostly Harmless
5. So Long and Thanks for All the Fish

EFY

I might as well blog about my time at EFY (Especially For Youth) a couple weeks ago since I've already blogged about Camp Helaman.

I went to the Tacoma 2 session, which was from June 30 to July 5 at the University of Puget Sound. I carpooled with some other people from my ward, and we checked in around noon on Monday. Most of us ended up in different companies. I didn't know anybody from my company, male or female, before going there. Fortunately, we spent most of the day getting to know each other. We started off by meeting with our councilors. I'll just be honest and say that I think my councilor was the best one at the session. He was just so happy and energetic that it's unbelievable. Afterwards we met with the rest of our company, had orientation and dinner, then had FHE. It was complete with a lesson and group activities. I didn't know everybody's name, but I got better as the week went on.

Our company was lucky enough to have the dorm with suites. Basically each suite had six independent bedrooms with shared restrooms, showers, sinks, etc. I heard the girls had the suites last year, but complained because they thought they didn't have roommates or something. Silly girls.

Anyways, Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty similar. We had the usual morning routine of breakfast, scripture study, and morningside. After that we had four classes with lunch in the middle. The difference between the two days is that on Tuesday night we had a dance. There was a dance competition, and for the second year in a row I got 3rd place (if applause is to be trusted). In second place was some person who did some generic breakdancing moves, and in first place was some chubby Polynesian kid who was somehow spazzier than me. He deserved the applause. On Wednesday night we had a game night and a cheer off. Our company went around to different stations on a big field and competed against other teams. We actually did pretty well in the games, but I wish we could say the same thing about the cheer off. Our team didn't even place in the top 3 for our age group. Still, I thought our flag was cool. Our company name was "Be No More", so the flag was of a picture of a bee about to be slapped by two hands.

Another thing about Wednesday is that it was pizza night. Each of the 12 boys in our company pitched in $9 dollars, which amounted seven or so pizzas and various beverages. Also, I don't know who came up with the idea, but some people from another company on our floor lined the hallway with matresses, spun people around several times, and had them jump down the hall. Fortunately, nobody barfed or got injured. I tried it a couple times, and it felt like somebody was tilting the building but not at the same time.

Thursday was "reverence day" or something, which basically meant that we wore our Sunday clothes (keep in mind that I wasn't able to shower in the morning). For the most part everybody was quiter and more well behaved. In the afternoon we had the "Variety" (eg Talent) Show. We had a rather large number of musical performances, but that was unsurprising. One of the people from my ward stood up and read a poem about food getting revenge (puns abound!). There was even a guy who tried riding a unicycle. The most astonishing (and humorous) act was a skit about the world's fastest (and slowest) spitter and his assistant "Hawkeye Loogie." The skit was funny. I almost sorta died laughing. Fortunately, no saliva (real or fake) was actually used.

Before the fireside that night we also had a short musical program (about 30 minutes). At the insistence of my councilor, I participated in it even though I don't really have a singing voice. For all intents and purposes, being in the program meant that I had almost no free time whatsoever. Even so, I still think the practice produced a pretty good performance (or at least listenable). After that we split up and had testimony meeting. I managed to get up and bear mine against all odds. After that we went to sleep.

On Friday we did a bunch of different stuff. In the morning we had an activity about the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and after lunch we had a "Taking it Home" activity. The most surprising activity of the day was the service project, which involved knitting hats for babies. Every single group of two had to knit at least one hat (emphasis on Every). I was surprised at how easy the whole ordeal was. Dinner that day was a fancy banquet. We wore fancy clothes, ate fancy food, used proper ettiquette , and were even paired up with girls. It was a great time.

After dinner we met as a company to exchange addresses and taking pictures. It seemed like the girls wouldn't be satisfied until they photographed every single combination of people in our company, so we were half an hour late to a two and a half hour dance. Oh the horror. The dance was pretty fun, but due to the fact it was dressy I had trouble truly expressing my inner self without sweating profusely. After the dance there was a slideshow of the things that happened over the week. There was even a picture featuring nothing but me. After the slideshow we sang "America the Beautiful" because it was July 4th, and then we went back to our dorms.

Next morning we packed our stuff up and met in the lobbies for our last goodbyes. After a while I borrowed somebody's cellphone to call home and ask where my mom was, because I thought that she might be taking me home. While I was talking to her, I noticed my Dad smiling at me, so I assumed he was my ride.

And that's how I spent my EFY. It was pretty fun, and I've even got into the habit of journaling daily. Unfortuantely, I temporarily lost my flossing habit because I hadn't done it for two weeks. Don't worry, it's all better now.

Camp Helaman

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I had a severe bout of laziness followed by a couple cases of the camps. Fortunately, I'm feeling better now.

Two weeks ago from June 24 to 28 I had the pleasure of going to something called "Camp Helaman". Basically it's a missionary prep camp. We're paired up into companionships that were organized into districts that were organized into zones. The companionships had to stay together at all times and in all places (bathrooms excluded). We had a morning schedule and evening devotionals. The food was always really good.

Calling it a camp would be somewhat of a misnomer. Sure, we all slept outside in adorondacs (or whatever they're called), but 90% of the time was spent in the dining hall. We had our meals there as well as most of our classes. The only ones not in the dining hall were either just outside of it or in a room just by it. We also had lessons where we used the "Preach My Gospel" manuals, and even got to teach a few lessons with it as companionships. Granted, one's mileage during that activity woud vary quite a lot depending on one's companion and the attitude of the pretending investigators. I heard of an instance where a companionship pretended to be a gay couple when taught.

...yeah. Guess who'll need some work before going on a mission.

Anyways, we also had a couple of fun activities. On Thursday we did a service project. We went to a park in the very town in which we all lived and helped spruce it up. I helped pick up the remains of a felled tree, shoveled some dirt into some holes, and sweeped the concrete. Afterwards we played Ultimate Frisbee for an hour, with the three zones rotating in every point. The project was fun, but it would have been better if it was on the last day and we went home afterwards.

On Friday we had a nice hike. The trail was some sort of private logging road that wasn't being used at the time. Overall, it was a gradual uphill climb. The scenery was cool, but nothing particularly breathtaking. It was a pretty hot day, so I managed to use up all of the water I brought. At the halfway point of the hike, our leaders (who happened to be rather slowpokish), told some stories about our pioneer ancestors and such. The latter half of the hike was mostly downhill, so quite a few people decided to race on ahead. Most of us were glad that it was starting to get shady. The total length of the hike was about 9 or 10 miles, meaning it was a fairly respectable hike, but definitely not a remarkable journey of any sort.

On Saturday we had a couple classes, packed up, had testimony meeting, and left shortly thereafter at 5 PM. Overall "camp" was a fun excursion.

Blah blah blah

I said that I would post the Father's day card I made, so here it is:

It's supposed to be "Breakfast in Bed."

Note: Them Black Holes Inc. and its affiliates are not responsible for any food poisoning, facial implosion, or spontaneous dancing that may result from eating this food, particularly the radioactive green waffle and sausages.

Father's Day

Hey Dad! If you're reading this, I just want to say "Happy Father's Day!"

For the rest of you reading this, I'll post the card I made for him sometime tomorrow. In the mean time, here's an addictive game for you to play until I that time comes.

Skool's Out!

Yesterday was my last "day" of school. All we did was write a letter to ourselves to be sent back five years after graduation. Coincidentally, the teacher wasn't at school because she was at her son's graduation. I managed to write a about 1.1 pages, and decided to stop because I'm not fond of writing with my hands for extended periods of time and because I brought my DS to school for a reason.* On the back of the envelope I wrote "In case of my death, please eat this letter."

In other words, I didn't have a real English final. In fact, the same can be said about pretty most of my other classes. In Japanese all we had to do was ask and answer a few questions orally, and then we spent the rest of the period partying. In both College Algebra and Physics we didn't do anything because the seniors had already left a couple weeks beforehand.

In essence, that leaves only two classes: US History and Ceramics. In history all we had to do was give thoughtful 4 to 6 sentence answers to 4 questions and, quite surprisingly, it took me almost the entire period. In Ceramics, we had an honest-to-goodness Kosher true final exam. Yes, a real final exam that covered all of the material we learned over the semester. I almost died of shock. That would've made summer quite disappointing, but, then again, it would be funny to watch somebody eat that letter.

*I'll be disappointed in you guys if you don't recognize that song.

Wii Fit

Sorry for the lack of any recent updates. Hopefully I'll be slightly more consistent after school gets out in two weeks.

Me attempting to preform the tree pose on Wii Fit.

Truth

"He's the dumbest smart person I know."
- My physics teacher

It was senior skip day today, so naturally my Physics teacher didn't bother making any real plans for the day because he knew that practically nobody would bother coming (I should mention that I'm not a senior). After turning in our review worksheets, we spent most of the time doing nothing in particular. When up at the teacher's desk during this time, I saw a rather nifty little mug, which looked like something that I'd expect from an Advanced Ceramics class, rather than a store. Being a rather curious student in a Ceramics class, I felt the need to look at the bottom to find out who made it. Unfortunately, I neglected on small detail, which caused the teacher to say the aforementioned quote.

The mug was half full.

In my defense, the inside of the mug itself was the same color as the beverage itself (black), and the first thing I did was grab some paper towels and start mopping up the mess. The spill wasn't that bad, even though the coffee got on the keyboard, in a drawer, on his cellphone, as well as a couple of papers. Everything came out relatively unscathed, and if it weren't for those pesky papers you wouldn't have been able to notice that the spill.

After that little incident was cleaned up I played two games of chess while watching Bill Nye walk on fire. I lost the first game, but managed to make a comeback in the second.

Backblog

There have been a few blog-worthy moments in during the past couple of days, so I might as well talk about them in this super special spoony edition.

At school on Friday we had the annual pre-Prom "Don't Drink and Drive" assembly. Basically, some people read about 13 fake obituaries of students in the ASB leadership who all allegedly died the previous day. I'm sure that convinced all the drunkards in the audience to become sober. After the gut wrenchingly awful and pointless obits, we heard a real story by some dude whose son actually died some time ago (possibly 20 years). He sounded much more honest than the other speakers, but that's probably because he went to BYU.

Yesterday Mom, Dad, Danny, and Nathan came back from their little trip, having accomplished 95% of what they planned on doing. I expected them to get home around 7PM, but that turned out to be when they left. As a result I went to sleep after midnight, which resulted in me waking up 30 minutes before church started.

Today we got a new bishopric, which took up half of testimony meeting. The current Bishop was the 1st councilor, the 1st councilor was the 2nd, the 2nd councilor was the guy sitting in front of us, and the former Bishop now sits with his family. Also, one really industrious young man managed to invite 5 non-members to church, but I think they're all part of the some team or something, so it technically should one count as one.

Home Alone

I was home alone today until about 9PM, because Andrew was at work and the rest of my family was down in Portland, presumably staying with the other half of this blog's readership.

I've managed to get a ride to seminary, and I didn't starve to death. I had my usual after-school snack of ramen, and around 7:30 PM I decided to nuke some hot dogs predipped in honey batter (AKA corn dogs) when I realized that Andrew wouldn't be coming home anytime soon and that I can't trust myself to cook a frozen pizza without burning the house down. The fact that I was hungry probably played a part in the decision too.

Running Start

I won't make this post be about Earth Day, because I feel that it would just become a lame excuse to make a joke about Captain Planet. Instead, I'll inform you that I took the test for Running Start today, and I'm fairly confident that I'll be accepted.

Hizorer

Here is a direct quote from a grammar worksheet I got from English class (bcus kids txt 2 mch):

"A personal pronoun must agree in gender with its antecedent. When a singular antecedent refers to a category of persons that may include both males and females, you may avoid sexist language by using the phrase his or her, rather than his."

That just reeks of political correctness, doesn't it?

Reunion

Last night right as we arrived home from the dance, we noticed an expected visitor arrive unexpectedly early. I knew that David was up around here because one of his old friends was getting married, but I expect him to arrive today. Either way, the time at which he arrived didn't matter, but rather the implications of his arrival.

It was the first time we've all been able to be together for two years and could easily be the last time for two (or more likely three or four) years. Nathan just got home from his mission, Andrew will be leaving in July, and with any luck I'll be leaving before he gets home.

We took advantage of this by inviting Stephanie and her family over, and taking family pictures. Dinner basically amounted to Thanksgiving in April. Unfortunately, David couldn't stay very long, because he had to leave right after dinner.

Cooling Down

Earlier today I was playing Smash Bros with Danny, his friend, and his friend's friend. It was pretty fun and enjoyable, but eventually they left, and I was left with no one to play with. I figured I could complete one of the challenges the game presents: beating the Boss Battles mode on Intense difficulty.

Intense is a misnomer. It's freaking Impossible.* I managed to get to the final boss once, but failed to dodge one of its umpteen instant-kill moves. That's about when I gave up for the day. I didn't see the point of trying over and over only to end up failing. You can probably imagine how I felt.

Fortunately, there was a stake youth dance tonight, which was the perfect way for me to cool down a little by dancing a ton to make myself sweat several gallons of water. I liked most of the songs, and I actually danced with some girls.

. .
O

* I've actually completed that game.

Wasted Opportunies

Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I've had plenty of blog-worthy things happen since I last posted, but I've been lazy. To make it up for you, I'll compile them into a list.

• Nathan came home
• Missionaries came over for dinner
• Learning about dating and hygiene at scouts
• I started flossing nightly
• WASL late start days
• Working extra hours for Ceramics
• "Cooking Show" in Japanese class
• Andrew got his mission call
• It's snowing

Zero Days

Worst case scenario.

One Day

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

Two Days

Two is the number of views that it will take for your mind to be blown be this video.

That is all.

Three Days

According to Wikipedia, three is often the largest number written with the same number of strokes as the number it represents. This was true with the Romans, Chinese, and Brahmin Indians.

Three is also:

• Considered lucky in many cultures
• The centimeters of hair cut off of my head.
• The average number of movies people can name starring Charlton Heston:
  
• The Ten Commandments
• Ben-Hur
• Planet of the Apes
• The hours of conference I was able to pay full attention to.
  

Four Days

I reckon that I dozed off about four times during the afternoon session of general conference, and I can give you four reasons why:

1. My parents were at the Republican county caucus.
2. Andrew was at work.
3. Danny decided to watch it downstairs.
4. It'd've been a pity to see the couch go to waste.

Five Days

Five is the number of sessions of General Conference I'll be seeing of the weekend. It's also largest number of consecutive posts that I've made past 8:30 PM. Additionally, five is the number of sides on a pentagon, and there are 12 pentagons on a soccer ball. Maybe they represent the 12 apostles that will be speaking at Conference.

As long as we're on the subject of soccer, I might as well mention that I I played soccer during Japanese class. The World Language teachers like doing this every year or so, but it was cold and raining today. However, since most of our class wanted to play, our teacher let us play, but let the three wimps that didn't want to play stay in class. As for the game itself, I didn't even slip once in mud, which was better than half the other players and all my matches in Smash Bros. Overall it was pretty fun, even if my hands were practically frostbitten by the end of the game.

Five is also the number of points that I should have gotten on the extra credit problem on the Physics test. Even though I got the right answer, I made an assumption about the scenario that was incorrect, due to my poor knowledge of American football. The assumption led to a slightly difference value for a variable, but it ended up canceling itself out, means that I could have put a cheesecake in its place and still have gotten the right answer. Then again, it's not like it matters, considering the fact that I got 110%, which was only one point away from a "perfect" score. There's also the fact that the test was about five times harder than the test that the other Physics class took.

Bonus Question: Find out how many points the test was worth, assuming that I got a perfect score on all the other problems (which I did).

Six Days

I'm too lazy to think of anything related to the number six that has an significance (sans 666), so I'll just rummage through the Wikipedia article on the number.

Rummaging...

...

Six:

• Is the atomic number of carbon
  
• Is the day God created man
• Degrees of Kevin Bacon
• Is the number of inhabited continents
• Is the number of dots in a braille character
• Is the number the poster attached to this video

Seven Days

I suppose I should start counting down to next Wednesday. I forget exactly what happens on that date, but my Mom seems to have been doing the same thing for the past couple weeks. As long as it provides content for my blog, I'm perfectly willing to jump on the bandwagon.

So to kick it all off, it's seven days until April 9th (unless you live in New York or half of the globe east of it). Curiously seven is also the number of days in a week.

Closing Shop

I've decided to end this blog right here and right now. It was a good ride, but I don't feel like what I've got out of it exceeds what I put into it. Maybe I'll eventually start a new one, but honestly, this takes far too much effort to maintain. Farewell. If anybody wants to take over this blog and pretend to be me, just remember that my password is "Sloof Lirpa". That shouldn't be too hard to remember.


Notice: If this post didn't make you chuckle, then I doubt that this would either.

Mad Skills

Tonight at church we had a youth skill show with a variety of different skills being showcased. Three people showcased there flippin' sweet piano skills, by playing compositions from Pirates of the Caribbean, generic haunted houses, and something different. Cinematographic skills were also exhibited in the form of two different films. One was a spoof with Rocky (shirtless) fighting Batman with "Eye of the Tiger" being played in the background (I was Rocky). The other one had something to do with a hero called Action Hero. I'll be sure to post links to them if they end up on YouTube.

There was also a girl who showed her art and drawing skills. Another person decided that the best use of his bass guitar skills would be to do a 9.5 minute solo. A slightly more sane person (read: female) did a solo on a harp for a much shorter duration. One of the less stellar skills showcased was the collecting skills of a Warhammer 40K geek. I bet he has quite a lot of Lord of the Rings figurines too.

On the other hand, one of the better skills showcased there was done by a girl in the form of a modern dance. I, however, transcended all temporal barriers by doing a completely unchoreographed imitation of this dude. By obliterating causality I managed to garner the greatest amount of applause. That took some mad skills.

Note: Talents are for weirdos.

Happy Easter

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then I wonder if this is worth more than my previous post.

EDIT: Nope. The previous post is only 578 words. This is about 1006.

Knowledge Bowling

On Friday I was granted the privilege to leave school at lunch time. Why you ask? So I could go to the Knowledge Bowl state finals. Technically speaking, the finals were the next day, but given the fact that the place was about 4 hours away and the meet started at 8 in the morning, going on Friday was the only feasible option.

Granted, we didn't do much on Friday. After eating lunch at Tacos Guyamas (a local Mexican restaurant that serves very large helpings), we left on a 4 hour drive only punctuated by one rest stop. We stayed at a Comfort Inn in Vancouver, and went out to dinner at Red Robin. After eating 80% of the biggest burger I've ever seen, I spent the rest of the night lounging around at the hotel. Most of the lounging consisted of me playing either Final Fantasy or Tetris on the DS I brought whilst peripherally watching some TV.

While I was being driven to the precise location of the finals (Camas, WA) on Saturday, I was hurriedly devouring breakfast from the hotel and had one of my teammates forge my mom's signature on a permission slip that the adult advisors forgot to give us earlier. Ironically, the slip basically said that the people running the bowl could send us back home if we broke the rules.

The high school we were at was very nice. It has nice features such as covered hallways, multiple floors, a credit union, a logical layout, drinking fountains, and non-beat-up desks, all of which the school I go to mysteriously lacks. The only discernible flaw I could see with the school was its mascot: The Papermakers. Even the Borderites are better.

As for the meet itself, it was slightly different than the previous ones. Like usual, it started with an oral round of 50 questions, but that didn't determine what room we went in, because the room placement for the first four oral rounds was predetermined, meaning that we didn't have to spend hours waiting for results. Another difference with the oral rounds was that only the "team captain" could say the answer (or he could say "I defer to..."). After the end of the first 4 oral rounds, the bottom 9 out of 18 teams in each division were eliminated and got to go home early as a prize.

As far as our team's performance at the meet, I'll just say that it was horrible. I think we did pretty well on the written round, but we got more than 10 points in only one of the oral rounds. Most of the questions were quite hard and most of the other teams were very good. After the 4 oral rounds were over, our team was eliminated. However, I think that I have 3 things I can be proud of:

1. Our team made it to the finals.
2. We weren't the worst team there.
3. I managed to answer a question about Euler's identity before anybody else did.

Given the fact that my parents didn't expect me to return so early, they were out of town having fun, which meant that I had to walk home from the bus barn. Fortunately, at about the bottom of the hill my bishop saw me and was willing to drive me home. Coincidently, he has a brother who lives in Camas and he goes down to see him every once in a while. Whodathunk it?

Old School

In ceramics class we learned about the Japanese raku pottery, but that alone wouldn't be noteworthy enough to blog about. It's the way we learned about it that really sealed the deal. It was in the form of a sequential-image stereophonic multimedia event, or in other words, it used that old slide projector/cassette player combination thing that used to be considered hi-tech. I don't know what it's called, but it is so old school. My mind is boggled at the fact that more people seem to be nostalgic of their old Nintendos than the infinitely superior slide projector. The only flaw with the projector is that it's difficult to keep the slides in sync with the sound, but compare that to the hours one wastes blowing their old Nintendo cartridges. The sequential-image stereophonic multimedia player is clearly better by a factor of twelve.

It seems that some of my other teachers heard of the news and decided to jump on the old school bandwagon, but admittedly, their attempts were much less stellar. In math class we learned about linear programming, which over half the class learned the previous year, and in Japanese class the assignment we did was exactly the same as one we did a couple months ago. There was also history class, but that obviously shouldn't count.

Fire in the Hole

Let is be know that I hate hate hate hate hate hate HATE HATE* it when people pull fire alarms just to get out of class. Seriously. It drives me absolutely nuts. I feel like punching holes through doors and kicking desks up into ceilings. It has happened a few times at school during the past couple of weeks, and I feel like I'm being bent past the breaking point.

The strange thing is that it always seems to be during second lunch, indicating that the same person must be responsible for all the incidents. I felt like beating said person to a pulp after he pulled the fire alarm again today, despite the fact that the weird WASL schedule we had changed lunch so it was linked to 2nd period. Fortunately, I don't need to beat said person to a pulp, because the good Lord was kind enough to invent younger brothers that can be easily beaten to a pulp in Smash Bros.

* Note: Video contains a gratuitous amount of hate.

Substandard

Here's a short list of substandard things for the past week (other than my atrociously inconsistent updating schedule):

1. The condition of Danny's forehead on Monday morning after banging his head against the wall the previous night (see the previous post for more details).

2. The difficulty of my High School's pitiful excuse for a senior project.

3. The general behavior of us teenagers at the etiquette dinner we had on Tuesday for mutual.

4. The discipline at the middle school Danny went to before my Mom decided to homeschool him.

5. The amount of attention I paid to the speakers at stake conference (I blame my nephews).

6. The consistency of my family's scripture reading schedule.

7. The amount of time I've spent playing the new Smash Bros game so far.

May All Your Dreams Come True

My younger brother just officially became a teenager today. However, I think he actually became one yesterday. When he learned yesterday that he wouldn't be getting what he really wanted, an external hard drive and/orand a PSP*, he spent a few hours moaning, groaning, crying, and banging his head on the wall. I think he eventually got over it, judging by the fact that I haven't observed any teenager-tude coming from his general direction today.

Apparently his birthday was a life-shatteringly important event, judging by the fact that my sister's family came over to enjoy the festivities. After eating some ice cream and cake, the presents came rolling in. He managed to get the majority of items that he used as filler on his birthday list, but he didn't get his most wanted (read: expensive) items. Instead, he got a new bike and some accessories to go with it, which was probably just as expensive, but definitely more worthwhile.

* When interrogated, he wasn't able to name any games he wanted for the PSP. For all we could have known he could have wanted anything from Mega Man to Barbie's Horse Adventure.

A Full Commitment's What I'm Thinking Of

No, I haven't deserted this blog. I can't can't think of what to write. Even if it appears like there haven't been any posts here for a week, you should just remember that I'm never gonna give this blog up.

On a more serious note, I had tests in College Algebra and Physics yesterday. I thought they were as easy as pie, but I'm sure the rest of the class would disagree. Honestly, I found the 25-minute SAT practice essay I had in English class this week to be harder.

Day in Review

Despite the fact that today was a late start (see previous post) I still accomplished some things at school today. Here's a handy list sorted by period:

1st (English) - Learned what the teachers were doing during the three hours.

2nd (Ceramics) - Smoothed out the pot I was working on.

3rd (Physics) - Just like a normal day, due to the fact the period was 40 minutes long. We even got homework!

4th (History) - Watched a movie about the Brooklyn Bridge.

5th (Math) - Vented rage by kicking a desk because of numerous unsuccessful guesses whilst playing heads-up 7-up.

6th (Japanese) - Watched "Shall We Dance?"

As you can see, even late start days can be very productive.

Late Start

For some reason my school district feels like giving the students tons of days off or incomplete weeks. It's very hard to find a string of consecutive weeks that are not ruined by half-days or days off. Case and point: This Monday was a day off, but we also have a 3-hour late start today. I need to go to school in a few minutes, complete with 25-minute periods.

See ya later.

Presidents' Weekend

Good ol' President's Day. Yet another shining example of a holiday that was shoved up against a weekend just so people could have more consecutive days off.

Case and point: My school district decided to make this last Friday a no school day, just so all those ski bums could use this resulting 4-day weekend to beat the world record for "Most Consecutive Hours Spent Skiing". I will admit to being part of the problem. On Saturday all the youth in our ward went up to Mt. Baker (3 hours away) just so they could sled on top of 10 solid feet of snow for a couple hours.

As for President's Day, the only celebratory thing I've done today was eat some nice pie. Cherry pie.

Filler

I'm just posting this entry to see if anybody looks at this blog.

Also, I was considering posting a video for Valentine's Day, but wasn't sure if I should post it.

So, instead, here's a video of a train wreck.

Equilibrium

I had an awesome day at school today. There was a pep assembly, and it totally pepped me up. It was certainly awesome beyond all reason. In addition to being the noisiest thing in the world, there was a sasquatch that did slam dunks. I mean, is it possible for there to be anything more awesome?

Short answer: No (ignoring absurdly awesome boss fights against giant robots (1) (2) (7), of course.).

On the flip side, my younger brother, who is being homeschooled, is returning from a multiple day field trip in some far away state known as "Oregon." Naturally, this does not bode well for my sleep cycle.

Subpar Tuesday

Apparently 24 states decided to have presidential primaries or caucuses today for some reason. I just think that it's part of some Free Mason conspiracy to make you watch more TV, but that's just me. Supposedly it's supposed to be a big event, but I'm not paying much attention to it. I think I just check check on this site in the morning. Then again, I won't be old enough to vote in November, so it won't really effect any decisions I make this year.

Personally, I didn't do anything special today. School was just another day of school. At mutual we just planned for activities that we'll be doing the next few weeks, such as sledding at Mt. Baker or bludgeoning each other to death with PVC pipes and pads. Nothing really special.

Super Bowl

No, I'm not talking about the match of American Rugby that was played yesterday. I'm talking about a real man's sport, that requires determination, intelligence, team spirit, and dance moves.* I'm talking the knowledge bowl.

Today's meet was the semi-finals, and our team was the only one from our school that managed to get their. The actual meet was at Blaine High School, which is in Blaine, Washington or Blaine, British Columbia, depending on who you ask. The school is pretty nice, but I think whoever decided the mascot should be the "borderites" should be shot.

Anyways, we arrived at the school around 9 o'clock, and had to wait a while for the written round. It was long enough for me to play a game of dots and boxes on an 8 by 8 grid and win. Our team got 38 points on the written round. That got us into room 2 (and 5th place) for the first oral round, where we scored of 12 points, which got us into room 2 (and 6th place) for the second oral round, where we scored of 12 points, which got us into room 2 (and 4th place) for the third oral round, where we scored of 12 points.

In the end we managed to snag 74 points and end up in 3rd place, which good enough for us to go to state next month. Go team!

*Yes, that's me.

It's Late

Since I had lots of homework and had to go home teaching, it's now pretty late for me, so I'll just post a link to a flash game I stumbled upon earlier in the month instead of putting actual content in this entry.

Basically, it's exactly the same as that game where you guide a ribbon through a randomly generated cave that gradually gets narrower, except that the caves aren't randomly generated, you pilot a "ship," and it has music. It might entertain you for a few minutes.

The Final Battle

In order to not appear like I've abandoned this blog, I'll recount some events that happened to me today.

Due to the snow day on Monday, and the scheduled no-school day on the next day, we managed to snag a four day weekend, at the expense of the 5th and 6th period finals being delayed 2 days. It also happened to be the start of a new semester, which made the schedule very weird. Before school we had to pick up our schedules for the second semester but go to the fifth period class we had for the first semester, which I can imagine confusing some people. My fifth period final was College Algebra, which I completed with 30 minutes to spare. For my Japanese final I gave a short presentation about the vernal equinox in Japan and served some pecan pie with a plastic knife. I only got 99%, but that was probably because my partner talked a bit more than me. The rest of the groups did the same, but with food of varying palatability.

Immediately afterwards the second semester started. The only difference in my schedule is now my English class is "Post-Civil War" and I'm taking Ceramics (read: pottery) instead of Aerobics. The periods were only 20 minutes long, which is just barely enough time to go over a syllabus or play half a game of chess.

So here I am now, just typing away at my computer a story all about how my life got flip-turned upside-down...

The Awesome Black Hole

I have succumbed to peer pressure and decided to create a blog. I might put some thought provoking and world changing comments here, but then again, it'll probably just turn out to be a place where I can post irrelevant links to YouTube videos accompanied by some witty text that tangentally relates to recent events in my real life.

I might add a few paragraphs to my entries to make it appear like I'm putting some thought into it, but truth be told, I have no idea what I'll be writing. It'll probably just be a bunch of filler.

In conclusion, if you came to this blog expecting something relating to anthropomorphic space critters, look somewhere else.